TENNIS

Muster and Capriati to Skip Wimbledon With Injuries

By ROBIN FINN

Published: June 19, 1997

The former French Open champion Thomas Muster, ranked fourth in the world but demoted to sixth in the Wimbledon seedings because of his 0-4 track record there, has withdrawn from Wimbledon at the last minute for the second year in a row. Unseeded Jennifer Capriati also informed officials yesterday of an injury-related withdrawal.

Muster cited hip pain as the excuse for extending his pattern of lack of success at the world's only grass-court Grand Slam event. Capriati, whose comeback appears to have hit a snag, was sidelined by an ankle sprain suffered while practicing for the Italian Open in May.

Muster, angered by Wimbledon's decision last year to overlook his ranking of second in the world and bump him to the seventh-seeded spot, abruptly withdrew after complaining of a thigh strain sustained at his grass-court tuneup in Halle, Germany. Muster, who this year installed a grass court at his vacation home in Australia but acknowledged he has rarely used it, reached the Halle quarterfinals last week but lost in the first round this week on grass at Rosmalen, the Netherlands.

Now at 7-9 in career matches on grass, Muster has not played Wimbledon since 1994. The Austrian has not had a stellar year on clay, either, losing to the eventual French Open champion, unseeded Gustavo Kuerten, in the third round two weeks ago.

Last year Muster's vacated position among the seeded elite at Wimbledon was claimed by Richard Krajicek, who went on to win his first and only Grand Slam title there. This year Muster was replaced by 25th-ranked Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden, who was awarded the newly created position of a 17th seeding and faces Chris Wilkinson of Britain in the opening round. Bjorkman gave evidence of grass-court expertise last week at Queen's Club, where he upset the three-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras.

The withdrawal of the 21-year-old Capriati marked the second consecutive year she has skipped Wimbledon with an injury and the fourth consecutive year she has failed to compete there. She is now without a victory in her last four Grand Slam events, a slump that stretches to the first-round loss at the 1993 United States Open that prompted her to quit tennis at 16. Previously, Capriati reached Wimbledon's semifinal round at 15 in 1991 and was a quarterfinalist in 1992 and 1993.

Wimbledon officials were gratified to learn that their 1992 men's champion, Andre Agassi, has apparently selected Wimbledon for his 1997 Grand Slam tournament debut. In the opening round, the unseeded Agassi, who is 23-7 on grass in his career, faces 10th-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain. The Spaniard was unseeded when he made his surprising sprint to the 1997 Australian Open final. Moya has played, and lost, only once at Wimbledon, but he shed his reputation as just another clay-court specialist by upsetting the defending champion Boris Becker at the Australian Open.